IED Claims Marine in Ramadi; Foreign Fighter Facilitator Killed

[MADem]

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Oct2005/20051009_2984.html

WASHINGTON, Oct. 9, 2005 – A Marine assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), was killed in action when the vehicle he was in was attacked with an improvised explosive device in Ramadi, Iraq, Oct. 8, military officials reported.
The Marine's name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Elsewhere, coalition forces killed a known al Qaeda in Iraq member near Fallujah before he could activate a suicide bomb strapped to his body Oct. 8. ...

[Ilsa]

1. Binka said no one from her son's unit was killed, so I hope this

wasn't from her son's group. :scared:

RIP to this unnamed soldier, thugh.

[MADem]

4. Hard to know

She said there were two? seriously wounded right at the outset, it may have been one of those. It is customary not to tell shipmates/battle buddies of deaths straight off the bat, if plausible deniability can be invoked, because it makes it harder to focus on the mission, especially when trying to repel the enemy, if you are thinking about a deceased pal. They grab the stretcher, get the guy out of there as quick as possible, and tell everyone that he will make it, even when he won't. A bit gruesome to think about, but that is SOP.

Hard to say if this was even the same action, as DoD is not known for their forthrightness of late, and it sounded like Ben was in it for some time before they could beat down the situation and get him out of there.

[leftchick]

6. I have googled looking for the fight Ben was in

This could be it but I doubt it. Unless of course the Military is lying about length of the fighting. Hard to say and they will find some excuse for not reporting the truth.

[Binka]

16. Ben Is In The 3/7 This Was Not His Fight

As far as I know the two who took the brunt of the IED were sent to Germany that night. Initially Ben was going with them but he had another surgery in Iraq and then stabilized some. The first word I got on Ben was GRAVE now I am hearing SEVERE but STABLE. He kept repeating to me "Mom I am so lucky, so lucky, so lucky."

I have no idea what he saw or what he did that night but it is the stuff of nightmares I am sure. I know my son and he is sharp as a tack and brave as a lion but this is gonna be a hard thing to recover from.

[ninkasi]

2. Yet another needless death...

another grieving family, who will mourn the loss of their loved one. And all to satisfy Chimp's obsession to go to war with Iraq. Bush is a disaster, has bankrupt the country, and has completely destroyed our reputation worldwide.

[bemildred]

3. "Foreign Fighter Facilitator"

Some PR hack will get a raise for that one.

[MADem]

5. Right up there with

PERSONNEL TRANSFER TUBES instead of aluminum reusable casket...

Bastards!

[leesa]

14. Or fired...cripes!

[Kipling]

7. RIP. 1855?

[NickB79]

8. 1955

Close to 2000 now.

[MADem]

9. You know what is oddly sick, but will probably start making people pay

attention?

We are starting to get into the numbers that correspond to the birth years of people who pay attention. People born in 1955 have either hit fifty, or are gonna hit it soon.

As the numbers go up, the people who notice the number will say, "hey, I was born that year..." and when we get up to 1985, 86, 87, well, that's draft bait...

[0007]

10. There may be something to what you're saying

[MADem]

11. Tip O'Neill used to say "all politics is local"

but the truth of the matter is, EVERYTHING is local. The media plays that game big time, looking for the stories that they think will resonate with the widest possible audience, the "there but for the grace of God go I" type tales.

But sometimes, all it takes is a LITTLE thing--the photo of the missing kid holding a teddy bear of the same type you gave your grandkid, a video of a dead girl wearing her hair the same way your daughter does...or something as simple as a number that corresponds to "your" number...

[daleo]

12. Foreign fighter facilitator

It sounds like a job description in the Bush cabinet.

[bemildred]

13. Or perhaps a CIA "information management" specialist.

Say the guy handling the "al Zarqawi initiative".

[MADem]

15. I think it is a fancy word for the guy who gives the Iraqi counterparts

their marching orders. A bit more than a translator, a bit less than a military supervisor, but likely trustworthy and wired in to the plan of action. You'd think they'd go out of their way to protect that sort of asset....